Bamboo Stalk

Josephine comes to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a maid. She meets Rashid, and with all the wide-eyed naivety of youth, believes she has found true love. But when she becomes pregnant, and with the rumble of the Gulf War growing louder, Rashid abandons her and sends her home with their baby son, José. Brought up struggling with his dual identity in the Philippines, José clings to the hope of returning to his fathers country when he turns eighteen. Will his Kuwaiti family live up to his expectations? Alsanousi crafts a captivating saga that boldly deals with issues of identity and alienation.

Ambitious, cultivated and brave Financial Times Saud Alsanousi is an important emerging literary voice Susan Abulhawa, author of Mornings in Jenin Alsanousi is a voice of conscience -- Boyd Tonkin The Independent Engrossing, political and heartfelt -- Bidisha Great wit and lightness of touch. Truly cosmopolitan and deeply humane -- Robin Yassin-Kabab, author of The Road from Damascus The National A bold, heart-felt indictment against racism in Arab society. A narrative with power and resonance, which captivates the reader with its artful simplicity and its endearing protagonist -- Leila Aboulela, prize-winning author of Lyrics Alley

Saud Alsanousi is a Kuwaiti novelist and journalist, born in 1981. His work has appeared in a number of Kuwaiti publications, including Al-Watan newspaper and Al-Arabi and he currently writes for Al-Qabas newspaper. He lives in Kuwait City. Jonathan Wright has translated a dozen novels and other major works from Arabic to English, starting in 2008 after thirty years as a journalist, mostly in the Middle East. He won the 2013 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for Youssef Ziedan's Azazeel and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2014 for his translation of Hassan Blasim's The Iraqi Christ.

Josephine escapes poverty by coming to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a maid, where she meets Rashid, an idealistic only son with literary aspirations. Josephine, with all the wide-eyed naivety of youth, believes she has found true love. But when she becomes pregnant, and with the rumble of war growing ever louder, Rashid bows to family and social pressure, and sends her back home with her baby son, Jose...Brought up struggling with his dual identity, Jose clings to the hope of returning to his father's country when he is eighteen. He is ill-prepared to plunge headfirst into a world where the fear of tyrants and dictators is nothing compared to the fear of 'what will people say'. And with a Filipino face, a Kuwaiti passport, an Arab surname and a Christian first name, will his father's country welcome him'..The Bamboo Stalk takes an unflinching look at the lives of foreign workers in Arab countries and confronts the universal problems of identity, race and religion.

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